Tuesday, 26 July 2016

It’s here, it’s there, it’s around you, it’s everywhere! You may not see it, but you can still find its presence around you! There it goes! Trying to trick me intelligently as I press backspace to correct the typo, only to find that it already has been corrected! I wouldn’t call it Artificial Intelligence (AI), as others call it. I see this technology more like a small kid trying to learn and understand things and eventually becoming intelligent enough to make its own decisions. You just need to be careful about what you are teaching this kid though.

AI has undoubtedly reached a long way, with IBM’s mind blowing supercomputer Watson taking over humans. Watson was designed to analyze and understand and speak human language fluently. To test it, researchers at IBM uploaded all of Wikipedia, IMDB databases and sent the computer to jeopardy against two top players. For the first time in human history, a computer has beaten us in human knowledge. In October 2015, a computer Go program called AlphaGo, powered by DeepMind, beat the European Go champion Fan Hui, a 2 dan (out of 9 dan possible) professional, five to zero. This is the first time an artificial intelligence (AI) defeated a professional player. From the way you shop for a pair of shoes online to how SIRI makes life so convenient to those high class of iPhone holders, AI is helping businesses across the globe save millions by improving performance and efficiency.

Now let us give a minute to that class of people who are deprived of basic needs. Is AI just used for defeating humans in games or for shopping? Does it really do anything else? This article will demonstrate how top companies like Facebook have actually gone out of the way to implement AI by giving due consideration to lesser privileged sections of the society. For example, we all are aware that there are millions of people in the world out there who are blind. CEO Mark Zuckerberg praises a blind engineer who has been working with him in a technology in AI that enables Facebook to look at a photo and read it aloud to the blind person. Also, Facebook has recently been testing technology that can help differently abled people to experience the internet, such as blind people experiencing photos. Another contribution by Facebook is the Oculus Rift VR headset and a visual recognition program that uses AI to help blind people use Facebook.

Today, IBM’s Watson is working in hospitals to diagnose cancers better than human doctors. Isn’t that beautiful? They even put Watson on the cloud so that software developers can unleash the power of Watson in their apps.

The Defence Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), which is agency of the Department of Defence of the United States has funded AI research for development of new technologies in military. The U.S. Air Force is working with private industry to develop systems for faster collection and examination of information. The goal is to improve reaction and decision-making time to implement more effective military actions. Like many of the military's uses of AI, it involves information management and decision making. Researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED), are developing robot intelligence that will enable robots to successfully navigate in their environment when given a voice command by a human. The goal is to develop a system capable of performing a wide variety of autonomous behaviors under a variety of battlefield conditions.

Robotic devices powered by artificial intelligence can perform a range of tasks in the mining sector. These include drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, bolting mine roofs as well as ore sampling and rescuing trapped miners.

In the real world of 2016, AI is all about helping companies make better decisions and operate more efficiently. It is always good to be equipped with knowledge - Knowledge about the facts and situations around you and to be useful to the people in some way. When you have knowledge, you can find solutions. But it is how we use it that define us – whether to benefit the society or to cause conflicts within the society. All the magic is at the tip of the iceberg, but all this is still happening. Jeopardy winner – Brad Rutter says, “I thought technology like this was years away. But its already here, next to me!” So “Artificial” Intelligence is not around the corner, its “real”, it’s here and it’s right at your doorstep.

Ms. Rajashree Rajadhyax,
Director, Bluenest Ventures Private Limited, welcomed the audience to the
event, and to the opening session. Mr. Deepak Gupta, founder, Book Exchange
Club of Mumbai, spoke about the activities of co-host, Book Exchange Club of
Mumbai, and thanked everyone for having taking time out on a Sunday morning to
attend. Mr. Sandeep Sukhtankar, Founder, Calibre Personnel Services, and
Director, Bluenest Ventures Private Limited, spoke about the ‘adventures’ of
Bluenest Ventures and their ground-breaking work in Artificial Intelligence
(AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Mobility. Mr. Ajit Joshi, Founder, TechXpla
spoke about the activities of co-host TechXpla, and how they have been actively
involved in tech influencing, blogging and organizing webinars.

In the first session of the event,
Mr. Devesh Rajadhyax, Founder & CEO of Cere Labs, began his Introduction to
Technology Vision 2035 by speaking of why the Technology Vision 2035 document
was created and why the audience, and the general public at large, should pay
attention to it. He clarified at the outset a probable misconception – which
technology referred only to IT or ICT – by pointing out that all technology,
even the kind used in agriculture and had no remote relation to IT, was still
Technology. Speaking of stakeholders who would be benefited by knowing what’s
in store for technological change, he elaborated that entrepreneurs could
improve their competitiveness in an industry revolutionized by technological paradigm
shifts or drive those shifts themselves and take the lead, professionals could
remove obstacles that would have otherwise be considered dead ends in their
career paths by being aware of technological shifts, academicians could upgrade
their knowledge base and better prepare the classroom generation for the world
they would grow up to live in, and students could be the true drivers who
generate the technological change that has been envisioned for the comparative
long-term.

Devesh Rajadhyax showing Document Report

Mr. Rajadhyax made the pertinent observation that most information
available about future technologies and research has been formulated with the
interests and issues of developed
countries in mind, and developing countries are at best only graciously
mentioned in such reports as places where these technologies ‘could find
application’. Introducing TIFAC and the Vision exercise to the audience, he
informed that the India Vision 2020 document popularized by Hon’ble Former
President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was framed during his tenure as TIFAC
chairman, a mantle which has since passed to the illustrious Dr. Anil Kakodkar,
who has been the Chairman, National Apex Committee & Mentor, Technology
Vision 2035. Mr. Rajadhyax then related how the exercise, which began in 2011,
incorporated inputs directly from 5000 technology experts nationwide and
indirectly, such as through surveys and suggestions, from 20,000 domain experts
over a span of 4 years, to create a good prescription for what India should
achieve technologically by 2035. Looking back on Vision 2020’s achievements in
that context, he commented that sectors such as Space and Nuclear Power had
exceeded expectations, Services (especially ITES) and Roads had lived up to
them, while sectors like Healthcare and Education had not grown to the extent
envisioned. This segued into the next section of his session – what the
document actually was. Mr. Rajadhyax enthused that it is a prescription for
India’s technological future that starts from the right point – us, Indians,
and not the technology itself, and that all guidelines in the document stemmed
from the differing but essential Security, Prosperity and Identity needs of the
evolving Indian population in 2035. Thus, he explained, these ‘segments’ of the
Indian population were matched to varying categories of needs, evoking a
complex matrix, which was then simplified down to 12 technological prerogatives
for Technology Vision 2035: some obvious, others not. As an example, he cited
the prerogative Safe and Speedy Transport, which had been specified and made
measurable as every place in India being not more than 1 km from availability
of public transport, 3 hours of travel from district headquarters, 5 hours from
the state capital and 8 hours from Delhi. He clarified that each prerogative,
being technological in nature, would be connected to 4 stages of technological
research – Scale, or the technology that is ready to deploy and only needs
scaling up; Lab to Field, or technologies that have been proven in the lab but
need to reach maturity so they may be deployed; In Research, or technologies
that show promise but need more research into how they may be developed; and Blue Sky Research, which are still
only probabilities and need to be figured out as to what research may be done to
make them possibilities. In conclusion and continuing with his earlier example,
Mr. Rajadhyax reminded the audience that achieving simply the prerogative of
Safe and Speedy Transport would face challenges of the magnitude of building
the highest railway in the world to connect Leh, the capital of Ladakh,
possibly the most remote but the second largest district in the country, and
Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, with the rest of India.

Post the morning tea, Mr. Devesh
Rajadhyax moderated the panel discussion on “How critical is technology to our
future?” with eminent panellists Mr. Ajit Joshi, Founder, TechXpla, with 2
decades of experience in IT Sales and Marketing and Secretary, Computer Society
of India, Mumbai Chapter; Dr. Ajit Bhobe, Deputy Director (Pharma Research),
SVKM’s NMIMS with 40+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry; Aditya
V Phatak, Senior Researcher, Gateway House and Foreign Policy Expert; and Ms.
Bela Shah, Sr. Group Manager, Technology Strategy and Transformation, WNS
Global Services, IT Expert with 11 years of experience in IT and ITES.

Panel Discussion

Speaking on trends in IT, Mr.
Ajit Joshiobserved that domestic
ICT projects in the past were usually educational such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, dealt with
questions such as ‘Can we educate students at the school level with ICT?’ and
followed the ‘Few PCs, internet and a printer’ computer lab paradigm, which has
now given way to Tablets and Interactive Content. Among other trends, he noted
the advent of ‘Smart City’ concepts that basically amounted to ICT-smartened
living such as intelligent temperature control in homes and notifications about
whether public transport was late and by how much, and the rise of mobility and
its implications for Fintech, which could eventually lead to advances such as
determining credit scores based on social data, loan automation and the
mainstreaming of peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Commenting on the current status
of healthcare technology and challenges faced, Dr. Ajit Bhobe opined that technology
needs for rural and urban populations were widely different, based on their
differing economic conditions, education and circumstances – both especially
with regards to nutrition, immunization and hygiene, with urban Indians more
prone to lifestyle diseases than previous generations. For rural healthcare,
Dr. Bhobe suggested that CSR initiatives be required to adopt villages and
ensure such objectives were met as literacy, sanitation, immunization and pure
water. He also pointed out research directions that could be taken up in India,
for instance, portable diagnosis machines which are currently being researched
by about 230 teams in 13 countries, and mentioned early successes such as the
Scanadu Scout. He stressed on the need for more such Blue Sky research in
biotechnology. Mr. Ajit Joshi added that technology is currently available that
enables prediction of disease outbreaks if these devices can be used for real
time reporting of infection, and would take a lot of the communication responsibilities
off government doctors who are already stretched too thin. Dr. Bhobe pointed
out that not much research had been done in the West for Tuberculosis which is
estimated to be latently present in nearly 30% of the Indian population, and
Malaria which causes 40,000 deaths annually. He also noted the indiscriminate
use of antibiotics as another worrying trend adversely affecting health.

Mr. Aditya Phatak shared his
views on India’s national power by stating that while the Defence forces are a
projection of power, the technology underlying them is the precursor to
national power, and that we should reduce our reliance on borrowed defence
technology. He cited the example of Japan which during the Meiji Restoration
ended the stranglehold of the shogunate and in 30 odd years transformed Japan
from a feudal agricultural nation to a modern technological power to be
reckoned with. Mr. Phatak reminded the audience that while we have the defence
hardware, we still do not own the code, and ironically we code apps that run on
top of that code, and commended Technology
Vision 2035 for envisioning a technology ecosystem that would hopefully lead to
co-production which would help us own our technology and not just assembled
kits from other nations, and lead us to strategic independence.

Speaking on the ITES industry in India,
Ms. Bela Shah described the evolution of IT in India, from the early days of
bagging non-core processes from overseas clients based on nothing more than
cost arbitrage, to taking over core processes, product management and research
by the late 1990s and early 2000s, to finally being able to deliver end-to-end
solutions, and an IT/ITES/hardware industry that currently stands at $150
billion. She elaborated that this evolution had helped us learn and that it was
time to apply that learning into original ventures and owning our products. She
described the changed market scenario as a much more diversified client
portfolio that helped us mitigate risk – still 60 70% US and Europe, but a
growing share of Asia Pacific clients and more importantly, a domestic market
waiting to be tapped, including traditional behemoths like retail and
opportunities in healthcare, education and governance. Ms. Shah admitted that
with the new opportunities came new challenges such as margin dilution arising
from the domestic INR business which would require different business models to
ensure profitability, and a mind-set that still sees IT as an enhancer that
incrementally improves processes and not an enabler that can radically change
or replace existing processes with more effective ones, while adding that the
Indian IT industry was more than ready to deal with the latter.

On the topic of technological
challenges, Dr. Bhobe brought to attention the difficulty in building an
actionable pharmacopoeia for traditional systems of medicine which lack a
standardized documentation, particularly Ayurveda, as descriptions of
ingredients in traditional texts are insufficient and subjective and may be
better served by actual photos, the ingredients themselves are not compounds
analogous to allopathy but combinations of various compounds found in nature
that are sometimes synergistic and sometimes mitigate side effects, and the quality
of such ingredients is highly dependent on the age, soil and weather cultivated
in.

In the Q&A session,
responding to the question of whether technology is being used as an escape
from actual problems at the ground level and not equally accessible to the
rural as it is to the urban population, Mr. Ajit Joshi said that he had
observed farmers using 2 or 3 cellphones to ensure enough battery power for the
entire day, and that accessibility was not as much of a problem as the cost at
which it is made accessible, which could definitely be improved with further advances
to technology. In response to the same question, Ms. Shah clarified that
Technology should not be looked at through a narrow view of ICT, and that it is
a transversal component that improved all others built upon it, including the
accessibility to what is referred to as ‘technology’ in common parlance. Adding
on to the answer, Aditya Phatak said that the power structures in our
consciousness and our culture are built to resist any technological advance as
it shifts power dynamics, and reminded the audience that technology or lack of
it is why we lost independence; so, when technology challenges an existing
power structure, it fights back, and technology ends up looking like the
problem rather than the one that demonstrates the problem.

On being asked how far India
Vision 2020 was achieved, and whether unexpected improvements were incorporated
into it or it stayed a static document, Mr. Ajit Joshi replied that with
regards to the industries like Space research or the IT industry, all
objectives were surpassed, but there were other areas that had lagged behind.

In the next session of the day on
‘Water’, Dr. A. P. Jayaraman, Dean SICOMS, Kerala and Vice-Chairman, National
Centre for Science Communicators began with the audience in giggles as he
jested that he would help the audience understand the abbreviations the report
used freely, and would have to talk ‘only’ about 1/24th of the
prerogatives, water technically being only one half of the prerogative Clean
Air and Potable Water. However, clean water being a luxury of sorts even in the
cities, the irony of his jest was not lost on the audience as he guided them
through the Technology Vision 2035 for Potable Water. He described how the
Vision was as simple and as seemingly insurmountable as ‘Assured and Fit for
Purpose Water Supply’. Pointing out the Grand Challenge ‘Ensuring Quantity and Quality
of Water in All Rivers and Aquatic Bodies’ facing this Vision, he elaborated
how it encompassed such varied activities as augmenting water quality, dealing
with the challenges created by new contaminants such as chlorine reacting with
dissolved organic matter to create carcinogens, making irrigation more
efficient with more crop per drop as 70% of all usable water in India still
flows into fields, waste water management, cost-effective desalination
technologies to reduce the pressure on freshwater systems, and the need for
future research.

Dr. Jayaraman introduced to the
audience how one-atom-thick graphene membranes could be used to reduce the
pressure requirements to push water across these membranes and thus reduce the
energy requirements for purification, how countries such as Oman were making
use of technologies like Forward Osmosis desalination, the use of biomimetic
membranes, and geo-synthetic textiles. He suggested that for the fruition of Technology
Vision 2035, the younger generation should perhaps be incentivized and guided
to make projects that are based on the Vision, and to replace the ‘thermocol
culture’ in existence among school projects. Dr. Jayaraman posed the
near-existential dilemma of the vision for water to the audience – there are
technologies in existence today that could achieve many of the objectives right
now, so should we use them now, immature as they may be, or do we wait till
2035 to see what we can achieve then?

Dr. Jayaraman talking about water related technologies

He also wondered that while it
was good to have long water supply
chains, huge warehousing capabilities and efficient transportation, would it
not be great to at least partially be
rid of the energy requirements posed by all of them by creating local,
reliable, clean sources of water for every area, thus lowering the amount of
distribution and transportation needed in the first place?

Dr. Jayaraman concluded his talk
by hoping and believing that technology would help us reduce both the chemical
load on our water and also reduce the energy load required to reduce that
chemical load, giving us not just clean water, but cost-efficient water.

The day’s events came to a close
with Ms. Rajashree Rajdhyax thanking the organizers, speakers and thought
leaders, and most of all the audience for having made this a pleasantly unusual
Sunday morning, with Technology Vision 2035.

About the author:

"This nice and well-mannered conclusion of Technology Vision 2035 event is summarised and written by Mr. Hari Thambi."

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

Mumbai, 23rd
May, 2016: Sunday morning saw Artificial Intelligence
Mumbai, host Sunday Morning with TV2035 at Nehru Planetarium, Worli. It was
very well attended with more than a 100 people showing up even though it was a
Sunday. The hosts and co-sponsors were Artificial Intelligence Mumbai, Book Exchange Club, Mumbai, BlueNest Ventures, TechXpla
and Smartify Health. The founders introduced themselves and their work to
the audience.

One
of the two main sessions of the day, the ‘Introduction
to Technology Vision 2035’ lecture was delivered by Devesh Rajadhyax, Founder of Cere Labs. He explained that the
TV2035 document is very important for students, business people, professionals,
and academicians. He started with a crisp introduction to Vision 2020 that left
no doubts in the mind of the audience the actual need and importance of the
document in discussion. The document, which required the contributions of 5000
experts, and 20000 people with domain specialization. It took 4 years of
teamwork to put together the prescription for India’s future, he explained. He
took up some of the topics such as connectivity, and energy generation, and
discussed these to explain the role of the document. Education, and healthcare
facilities are crucial to the realization of the bold vision, and he reminded
the audience that it was the responsibility of every capable citizen to work
towards these goals. The audience was very enthusiastic the whole time, and
after the event, Devesh was seen explaining even further about the Technology
Vision 2035 to people who wanted to know more.

Devesh Rajadhyax explaining Technology Vision 2035 Document Report

The event resumed with the introduction of panel members who would
discuss, ‘How critical is technology to
our future?’ The panelists included Ajit
Joshi, Founder, TechXpla; Dr. Ajit
BobheDeputy Director Research NMIM;,
Mr. Aditya Phatak, Senior Researcher at
Gateway House and Ms. Bela Shah, WNS
Global Services Pvt. Ltd. as a specialist in technology strategy to drive
IT-enabled business transformation. Devesh was the moderator for the discussion
that was truly exciting.

Ajit Joshi started with explaining how ICT technology is
positively affecting the life of the common man, and what the future looks
like. Dr. Ajit Bobhe was concerned
about the health issues in the rural areas. He spoke about the need for
stronger biotechnology research in India, and also about the indiscriminate use
of antibiotics in India. Aditya V Phatak,
emphasized the importance of creating an ecosystem such that indigenous
development of technology will be encouraged. Ms. Bela Shah, Sr. Group Manager, WNS Global explained how the
technology providers in India are now shifting their focus from the developed
nations as a market to the developing nations. She explained, how developed
nations as a market are now saturated and that the real play lies in the developing
nations including India being one of the biggest markets. She also stressed the
importance of change in the mindset required on part of the Indian clients to
consider technology not as a mere support function but a must have or a hygiene
factor for their businesses.

Panel Discussion

The panelists also took questions from the audience members, who were
curious about the implications of technology on people, and even about
Ayurveda, and more. One of the strong unanimous points made at the table, was
that the goal of such dedicated research and sacrifice by some of the best
minds in the world is to deliver positive changes to people, rather than the
betterment of technology itself.

Everything from the study of Bioluminescence
to e-swastya was discussed in terms of real world impact.

Dr. A P Jayaraman,
presented his lecture on the role of ‘Water’
in our vision of the future. Coming at the time of one of the worst water
crises that India has faced in years, he explained briefly the process of
desalination and the steps it involves. He told the audience present that for
achieving the vision of 2035, we must get started right away. He especially
reminded the younger generation of what is at stake, and why they cannot afford
to wait any longer to make an impact.

Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Predicting the future can be a risky business. Especially so
in technology. Things that the pundits predicted in a decade’s time haven’t
happened after fifty years. And things they said are still far away did arrive
in a few years. But when it comes to technological future of a nation, someone
has to take this risk. Someone has to give us a vision of the future. Because
the vision itself will drive the future.

Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council
(TIFAC for short) is a national think-tank that has done this job admirably,
not once but twice over. A part of the Department of Science and Technology
(DST) of the government of India, TIFAC has been led by visionaries such as Dr.
APJ Abdul Kalam in the past. It is currently headed by yet another legendary
scientist - Dr. Anil Kakodkar.

TIFAC released its first vision document in 1996 under the able
leadership of Dr. Kalam. It was called Vision 2020. As that year started
approaching, TIFAC decided that it is the time for setting new targets on the
technology roadmap. The result is Technology Vision 2035. The apex document of
the vision was released by prime minister Narendra Modi in the Science Congress
at Mysore in January 2016.

The vision document Technology Vision 2035 (I will now call
it TV2035) is a work that anyone interested in technology in India must study.
To begin with, it is a eminently readable report. Despite being created by some
of the best scientists in the country, it is a complete contrast to an abstruse
scientific paper. Full of infographics, the report is written in an elegant and
simple language that you and I can easily read.

Let me now show you some glimpses of the report:

First,
we can see that the makers of the vision had their hearts in the right place.
Even though this is about technology, they begin with the Indian people. The
Indian is at the centre, and technology is placed at the service of the
citizen. The vision statement is:

‘Technology
in the service of India: ensuring the security, enhancing the prosperity and
strengthening the identity of every Indian’

The report first presents an analysis of how the population
of India is going to look like in year 2035. There will be 1.5 billion Indians,
but they will be divided into diverse segments. This is one of the most
valuable research in the report. It gives us concrete profiles to work with,
rather than an abstraction of 1.5 billion.

Then the document tries to explore the complexity of needs.
Every segment will have a different composition of needs. The needs of a
segment like ‘Left Out or Left Behind’ are easy to imagine, though difficult to
fulfil. But the needs of a segment like ‘Global Diaspora’ are not easy to
figure out, because they are mostly of identity rather than security. If we
take a segment like the production people that is going to be most numerous, we
have to pay attention to the prosperity needs as well as the basic security
needs.

TV2035
has come up with a brilliant way to handle this complex matrix of population
and needs. It defines the terms ‘Prerogatives’. The prerogatives are like
rights that every Indian citizen must have in 2035. The prerogatives make an
interesting reading – clean air and potable water, nutritious food, 24*7 energy
are all there, but there are also the likes of cultural diversity and vibrancy,
effective governance and conservation of ecosystem. In all 12 prerogatives are
defined, that cover the entire spectrum of needs of the population.

Technology enters the picture here for the first time in the
report. The role of technology is helping in the attainment of the
prerogatives. For each prerogative, the technologies that can contribute to its
attainment are listed.

Take for example the prerogative ‘Quality Education and
Creative Opportunities’.

If a technology has to really contribute to the fulfilment
of a prerogative, it has be deployed on a mass scale. We are dealing with 1.5
billion people here. But not all technologies are in this stage right now.
TV2035 recognises four stages of technologies – Ready to Deploy, Lab to Field,
In Research and Blue Sky. For each technology associated with a prerogative,
the stage is also mentioned. This presents us a nice technology landscape for
the coming years.

For example, for the prerogative ‘24*7 Energy’, see the
technologies in various stages:

The section on Prerogatives is the longest in the report and
forms the core body of the vision. A most notable feature of the discussion on
prerogatives are the clear targets given for each prerogative. For instance, in
the discussion on prerogative ‘Universal Healthcare and Public Hygiene’, the
target is:

‘A
primary health centre would have to established in every gram panchayat with
telemedicine access to specialists and super-specialists. Every district would
have a multi-speciality hospital with air ambulance and trauma centre.’

After exploring the prerogatives and related technologies,
the vision document identifies three ‘transversal’ technologies. These are
technologies that form the foundation of all other technologies. They are –
Materials, Manufacturing and ICT. It is the lament of the makers of the
document that manufacturing and in general working with hand has been a
traditional weak point of India. The report calls for a change in the mindset
to become proficient in manufacturing . This is only way to implement the
technologies on the ground.

After
touching upon the various categories of technologies such as where we can
attain a global leadership and those where we have to depend on others in near
future, the report turns to aspects of implementation. It identifies the ‘Who’
and ‘What’ of technology implementation. The actors such as government, private
sector, research institutes and technology institutes are given due mention. A
repeated note in the report, beginning with Dr. Kakodkar’s Preamble, is to
encourage fundamental research. TV2035 is also keen on setting up an ecosystem to
make the progression possible. In this action oriented part of the vision, the
report suggests a Mission approach to achieve the milestones.

The makers of the vision have devised ten grand challenges
that will give a push to the development of various technologies. The grand
challenges combine different technologies for a very important purpose. A grand
challenge such as taking the Indian Railway to Leh and Tawang will trigger a
technology revolution in so many areas. The ten grand challenges really make an
interesting reading.

The Technology Vision 2035 document concludes with the
observation that a leadership in technology lends power to our nation, and a
fundamental change in education will lead to technological competitiveness.

The
making of the report was a massive exercise spread over three years, with a
direct involvement of about 5000 experts and indirect participation of more
than 20,000 people. The national apex committee was headed by Dr. Anil
Kakodkar, Chairman of TIFAC. The TV2035 team in TIFAC was headed by Dr. Gautam
Goswami, with the strong support from Dr. Prabhat Ranjan, Executive Director of
TIFAC. The TIFAC team of scientists – Dr. Neeraj Saxena, Ms. Jancy A., Dr. T.
Chakradhar, Ms. Mukti Prasad, Mr. Manish Kumar and Ms. Swati Sharma worked with
diligence and infinite care in putting together the facts and figures. The
elegant authorship was provided by Prof. Varun Sahni of JNU, Dr. G. P. (Bal)
Phondke and Dr. Harit Santhanam. The members of 12 advisory committees provided
the valuable inputs for each area.

The
apex report will be supplemented by 12 sectoral reports, which are going to be
published in the next few months. All the reports will be available from the
TIFAC website. The Technology Vision 2035 document can be downloaded from this
web page:

Most
of the material for this article was taken from the Technology Vision 2035
document. I had the privilege to meet the TIFAC team – Dr. Ranjan, Dr. Goswami
and Dr. Chakradhar during the conference on TV2035 at Nehru Science Centre,
Mumbai. As a speaker on ICT at the conference, I had the rare honour of
presenting in front of Dr. Kakodkar. Some of the information is based on my
interaction with the team. Some images are taken from the TV 2035 report with
permission from TIFAC. Some images are from my presentation at NSC.

Disclaimer:

All the trademarks, trade names, product names etc.
mentioned in the article are copyrights of the respective organisations.

Wednesday, 17 February 2016

We had our inaugural event on 17th of February, 2016. It was a successful kick off meeting between initial members of AIM. The purpose was to introduce and collectively share ideas and aspirations in the field of Artificial Intelligence.

The event was graced by researchers from Mumbai University, faculties from Patkar College and Sanghvi college, students doing projects in AI, experts from industry and AI start-ups. It is a rare opportunity where people from various backgrounds and expertise in AI came together. We talked about how to take this community forward and make it a success. AIM is fortunate to bring such experts together, and wish to continue the momentum going by keeping such events regularly. The objectives of the gathering were

To meet AI experts and enthusiasts

To generate ideas on how we can make AIM helpful for AI fraternity

How we can encourage students to take AI as a career option

The gathering was successful in achieving all of the above objectives with accord of everyone sitting in the inaugural. The acknowledgement of gathering was following ideas which were generated:

Regular talks to be given by AI Researchers in colleges

Regular workshops in AI

Intern ship offers by industries for students interested in AI

Spread awareness of AI in Mumbai

Organize competitions in AI

Publish online journals

Paper competitions for students to be organized by AIM

Building a curriculum in AI which will cater to industry needs

Regular content on AIM that will keep it running

Courses to be run by researchers in Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, etc.

We hope to continue this synergy. Help us grow this community by participating and sharing your expertise.

We thank Computer Society of India, Mumbai Chapter for the venue and refreshments.

About AI Mumbai

Artificial Intelligence Mumbai (AIM) is a non-profit social community devoted to bring together people from all over Mumbai who are directly or indirectly involved in the field of Artificial Intelligence.